prideshipping week prompts
by inkiyami
Summary: shorts for 5 days of prideshipping week.
1. Chapter 1: Role Reversal

_Day 1:_ Role Reversal

Where Yami is a rich spoiled brat and Seto is the aspiring duelist who gets bullied in school

For a boy who was too advanced for his own good, a boy who had the intricate workings of the physical world under his grasp at such an early age, it was only in strange sliver of moments of calm between impending danger and inflicted suffering that he experienced his greatest epiphanies. Even as he was being lowered head first into the gaping mouth of the toilet, secured by two strong highschool thugs, the whole situation was so unreal that it didn't register as a mathematical possibility. And even during the moments that his head was thrust down submerged under the cold toilet, while the air from his lungs bubbled out, expelled from a soundless scream did he not understand. It wasn't until he breathed in the dirty toilet water, and his body lanced with intense pain from the foreign intrusion that a switch in his mind finally clicked. To the boy, he only genuinely realized it once in his panicked and desperate thrashing that it had not slackened the grip of his captors or gained any measure of sympathy from them. And it became more and more evident the longer he struggled. Over the course of the next few moments, the outcome of what happens to him and consequently who he becomes will not be altered by any of his actions whatsoever.

After he was thoroughly dunked several times and then punched in the stomach for good measure, the thugs left Kaiba in the bathroom stall, utterly humiliated and shamefully disgraced. Everywhere his body hurt, water was still lodged in places where water should not be, and a sharp instense pain stung all around the vicinity of his nose. The myriad of emotions flowing through him were pulling at him and he didn't know whether to cry in bitterness, to burn with anger and hatred, or to get the fuck up and wash the disgusting filth off of himself.

This was by far the worst that has happened to him. The school year was barely halfway through and Kaiba knew that the intensity of the bullying was getting worse as time dragged on. No matter how much adult guidance he sought, and no matter how much he tried to apply well meaning non violent, even violent resolutions towards his bullies and none of them had stuck. Despite what the conventional wisdom says about bullying, Kaiba knew in his case it happened because there was something inherently in him that people hated and feared. It didn't matter if he tried to supplicate himself, or to try to buy into their good graces. People were able to sense his aloof superiority and they were getting more and more extreme in their methods to subdue it.

But today they had gone too far. Kaiba didn't know what they would do the next time, how far they would go to put him in his place. He genuinely hated this school, hated that some doctors thought it was in his best interest to 'integrate' with normal society for his own emotional development. He had no place in an environment where he had to consider his inferiors as his peers. He was going to walk out of the school and demand his mother to enroll him into university instead of acquiescing to her hair-brained requests.

Keeping his rage barely in check, he locked the door to the bathroom and set work to wash himself in the sink as much as humanly possible. He could still feel the ghosts of porcelain on his neck and cheek, imbued with bacteria and sludge from the excrement of thousands and thousands of disgusting filth-ridden students. The thought made him almost throw up but making a mess of things would delay him from getting out of his hell-joint as quickly as possible.

In what must have been the most liberal use of handsoap as everything cleaner ever, Kaiba scrubbed himself enough to not feel that coat of invisible grime on his skin and adequately dried himself with paper towel. His books and belonings were strewn about on the floor from the struggle that had taken place not too long ago. He set to pick each object one by one until his hand stopped on his Duel Monsters deck. The deck had been carefully taken off his belt and tossed aside by one of the bullies before they threw him into the toilet. From all of Kaiba's recollections of getting bullied, not once did they harm his Duel Monsters deck. On the contrary, they went out of their way not to get any of his cards damaged. There was only one explanation for the behavior and Kaiba didn't like it one bit at all. It only made sense if Yami Mutou was protecting his cards.

It didn't matter anymore though. In a few short moments, once Kaiba was out of the perimeter of the school he could say goodbye to everything and never have to think of it or Yami Mutou ever again. There was a time when Kaiba was a newly transferred student, when he didn't know anything about the social dynamics of the school, he targeted Yami Mutou as one of his potential friends. Mutou was intelligent, a bit eccentric, and greeted Kaiba's attempts at friendship with a raised eyebrow and trigger quick smirk. It was in a conversation about Duel Monsters when Kaiba discovered that Yami Mutou was rich. Extremely rich. Stupidly rich. Rich enough that his family all but owned the school except in name, and rich enough that almost everyone's father was on the Mutou family payroll.

The more kaiba discovered about Yami Mutou, the vastness of his ownership of connections, friends, power, and achievements in the Duel Monsters circuit, the more Kaiba realized there was no space in Yami's crowded circle. Yami was merely humoring his presence. To Kaiba, Yami became just another hovering entity that reminded him of how powerless he was, of cruelty and unfairness and all the things that made the world an ugly place.

It just occurred to Kaiba as he exited the washroom, then entering the main hallway that was connected to the front doors, that leaving the school might have been one of his greatest ideas ever. All he had to do was walk beyond the from gate, hop onto the 61 bus and he was home free. So when Kaiba saw a tiny figure standing in front of him, between him and his freedom, he frowned pretty damned hard. It was Yugi Mutou, Yami's dimutive and well meaning but ultimately useless cousin. There was an unconcealed look of concern in Yugi's large eyes and Kaiba knew this meant he had to get out fast. But the smaller man managed to block his way with his tiny body and Kaiba stayed in place, fearing any complication that would have come with hurting the cousin of the most powerful person in school.

"Yugi, get out of the way", Kaiba threatened. "I have an appointment."

But Yugi didn't give. Instead he said, "I heard G and B talking about what they did to you in the bathroom. Kaiba, I think you need to get help. I told Yami about it, and he said it was your problem to solve. I don't get it, but…"

"Yugi, get out of the way," Kaiba demanded.

"You're going to leave this school aren't you?" Yugi said, frowning.

"That's not your business." Kaiba hissed.

"I don't get it Kaiba, why didn't you ask for help?"

He DID ask for help, but that was beside the point. People like Yugi didn't understand that the world chews and spits out anyone who falls between the cracks and nobody blinks an eye.

"Let me pass," Kaiba demanded.

"No. We can solve this." Yugi determinedly said. Kaiba had no idea how Yugi got off saying the word 'we', as if they were both in this together from the very beginning. There was no 'we'.

"Are you fucking retarded or something?" Kaiba sneered.

"…what?" Yugi responded, faltering a bit.

"I ask you a simple request and you can't follow it."

Yugi's tiny body, one that didn't seem very capable of absorbing physical blows seemed to be as fragile to blows of the verbal sort. He kinda of slumped into the lockers and then supported himself on them, still meeting Kaiba's sharp intense glare. "I don't think running away is the right solution"

"that's not your call to make," Kaiba spat out.

"i guess not. But Yami can…"

"He can what," Kaiba said venomously, punctuating the words, daring Yugi to respond.

"He can call off those thugs if you ask him," Yugi said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Why would I do that," Kaiba responded, mollified at the mere notion of the thought of asking Yami Mutou for a favor.

"Why won't you?" Yugi plainly questioned, without any malice or judgement.

But Yugi's well meaning innocence pushed what little self restraint Kaiba had on his rage and it flooded out in full force.

"Look here you little shit," he gritted out, "that may be an option for you, but it's not for me."

"Why?" Yugi shot back, responding to Kaiba's ire.

"WHY? Are you fucking stupid," Kaiba shouted, and he shot his hand out, fisting the fabric under Yugi's chin in an attempt to quiet the smaller teen by force.

"let go of him," A regal voice commanded. Kaiba knew the owner of the voice. He turned around and looked a Yami Mutou before releasing his grip on the smaller teen.

Something about Yami's authority sobered Kaiba up, and he mentally kicked himself for letting his rage get the best of him. "Ok, whatever, I just want to go" he said in the most neutral voice he could muster.

"you're not going till you apologize to Yugi," Yami said.

"what? Are you fucking kidding me?" Kaiba shot back. Yugi had what was coming to him. Yugi was the one who crossed the line.

"you. Cease that tone with me right now," Yami commanded.

"oh yes your majesty," Kaiba said sarcastically, rolling his eyes with disdain.

"Kaiba…," Yami warned.

"Yami, this isn't your business so fucking butt out. I just want to go home." Kaiba bitterly said and tried to push himself away from to make towards the door, but it wasn't to be. Naturally his arm was grabbed by one of Yami's goons and held in place so that he had pretty much no range of motion.

"Apologize," Yami commanded.

Kaiba summoned the only words he could honestly say. "Yugi, I'm sorry you're such a little shit that yelling at you apparently doesn't beat any sense into you."

"Apologize again," Yami said, narrowing his eyes as a threat.

"Fuck you Mutou."

"Is that an invitation?" Yami raised his eyebrow in inquiry.

"You fucking sicko. Is it an apology that you want? Fine. I'm surry Yugi," Kaiba said, finally tired of all this shit. Maybe he should have apologized sooner if it meant freedom but Kaiba was physically incapable of apologizing for his actions.

"I want you to respect who you are dealing with. If you did, you would have none of the problems you are having at school." Yami crossed his arms and pointedly looked at Kaiba.

"are you serious? Nobody gets to decide who respects whom," Kaiba said, losing grip on his temper.

"I do."

"Is this for real?" Kaiba said incredulously. "You spoiled little shit. You can't control people"

"That may be the case for you, but I always get what I want. And I want you to know your place," Yami said seriously enough for everyone to know that he genuinely meant it.

"Hah, that's funny because as of today, I don't have a place here. Now you respect my decision and let me leave," Kaiba said, trying to be the better man, trying to ignore the sheer audacity of Yami's last statement.

"I was going to once you apologized, but I don't think i can with that attitude of yours," Yami said solemnly, in a gesture of mock disappointment.

"You can't keep me here forever."

"I may not, but i have something that can."

With that, Yami pulled out a card from nowhere and held it casually between the tip of his index and middle finger. As soon as Kaiba saw the dominant color of the cards and its holographic markings he knew it was the blue eyes white dragon, even though intellectually the possibility of seeing the card was slim to none.

There was an awkward silence that hung in the hallway as Kaiba dumbly stared at Yami's hand, trying to grapple with the signals that his eyes were sending him. It couldn't be the blue eyes white dragon. The card was so rare and so sought after that it was impossible that it would be in the hands of a high schooler, no matter how rich and powerful that highschooler may be.

"So what, It's your card. What does it have to do with me" Kaiba said, nonchalantly, pretending that he didn't spend the last 2 minutes drooling over the card.

"I will give you this card if you learn to respect people" Yami said in an official tone, sounding too grandiose and too self gratifying for there to be any real weight and import.

Kaiba didn't buy it. "There are only 4 copies of this card in the world, the street value on it is over 50000$. Only a fool would give it away"

"I do not lie" Yami said, seemingly offended to be called out in such a manner.

"You're full of bullshit" Kaiba spat.

"I have no attachment to this card whatsoever. But I know it has sentimental value to you." Yami smiled as if he knew a secret and Kaiba narrowed his eyes. Nobody should have known about his feelings towards the blue eyes white dragon. It was an heavily guarded secret that only his brother was privy to. And Yami's discovery of it proved that he was resourceful and undeniably dangerous.

but Kaiba for one moment couldn't believe that a person would go out of their way to get such a rare card and not have an attachment to it. "Prove it," Kaiba said, challening Yami. He knew as soon as he said the words that he was falling into a trap. But curiosity and something about the way Yami looked at him, the way his actions and bearing commanded this impetus and flow and it made Kaiba throw caution into the wind to fall into an obvious trap, just to see what Yami would respond with, uniquely and solely just for him.

As if on cue, Yami dramatically raised his other hand and placed the card in both his hands, twisting it in a way so that if he pulled his left hand down, it would tear a rip through the center of the card.

"I will rip this card if you do not tell me to stop."

"Go ahead," Kaiba said, rolling his eyes at the biggest bluff of the century.

Yami however, didn't seem to be bluffing. He slowly curled back his left hand and Kaiba watched, intently, carefully like a hawk, until the juncture of when cardboard stops bending and stretches till the point that it's about to separate. Yami had long passed that point and nothing in the rate of inertia of his hand was making any signs that it was going to stop. Kaiba just then cemented his hatred for Yami. He hated everything about yami, the control that he effortlessly held over everything, the way he got everything he wanted, the way he wasted anything he wanted, the way that nobody else cared about the power disparity and most of all, he hated how Yami was able to control Kaiba himself. He hated that Yami knew what he was going to do and he hated himself for going along with it.

"STOP," Kaiba yelled, and Yami's hand stopped.

The silence that followed was almost deafening. A small crowd that had gathered and bore witness to the main event stood deathly still. But Yami who was accustomed to his dramatic displays seemed unfazed, and he put back the card into his holster and swung his bag over his shoulder. Casually turning away from the scene, he and his followers headed home.

"I'll see you at school next Monday" he said, knowing the Kaiba would come back whether the words were heard or not.

The crowd had disappeared but Kaiba was still standing on the spot, seething. There was nothing for him in Domino High, least of all anything to respect. He was all the more committed to leave, but this time he would do so only until he destroyed Yami Mutou and had with him the Blue eyes as his last parting present.


	2. Chapter 2: Dreams

_Day 2:_ Dreams  
"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream."  
- Disney's Sleeping Beauty

He didn't know when he arrived in the dreamspace, he only knew that he was conscious and the span of time between when he started the dream and now could have spread to infinity. There was a general inebrieted sort of haze and total understanding of context in dreamworld so it wasn't odd that Seto Kaiba stared at the blackness of the void he was standing in without much thought.

The dream didn't really start until Yami started speaking, and even though dream Yami was everything Kaiba understood as real Yami, Kaiba only remembered real Yami as a series of dislocated voice clips and snapshots of key expressions and rebuttals. When dream Yami stood beside Kaiba and airily uttered,

"There is a saying that when two people dream the same thing they meet in the dream,"

Kaiba didn't regard this Yami as the one he knew, but a mythical Yami that belonged in something like a video game as an obi wan character or maybe even a mysterious princess.

Dream (or mythical) Yami, like real Yami did keep talking though.

"It is only something that happens when two hearts strongly desire the same thing," Dream Yami added, closing his eyes in pleasure.

"Shutup Yugi," Kaiba deadpanned, annoyed at dream Yami's strange eroticism.

Unaffected, dream Yami mischievously smiled at Kaiba. "I am curious to know," he said, "which of our dreams overlapped. I can recall before I came here I had two dreams with you in them. What about you?"

Shrugging, Kaiba couldn't really say. He was weirded out that Yami was so open to revealing this information, but in dream world, nobody thought too hard about consequences. What he was curious about was the validity of the simultaneous dream concept. Searching his mind, he tried to go back to fragments and patches, until they coalesced into a scene where Kaiba opened the from door of his mansion to reveal Yami in his school uniform, smiling a smile that made Kaiba's stomach drop and turn in a gut wrenching way.

Once the memories were accessed, they flooded in rapid fire, and Kaiba's senses were assaulted with memories and feelings that he must have shut out infinite time spans ago in dreamtime. He could see and feel it intensely, the image of yami naked and sprawled in Kaiba's four poster bed, save for his blue school uniform top, his chocker, and a white shirt unbuttoned. Kaiba could remember the texture and and taste of yami, as he trailed his tongue down the strip of skin between the opened space of the unbuttoned whiteshirt, feeling every rise and fall of Yami's chest as he breathed in heavily, desperately, so that the air he took in could match the swell of his desire. Kaiba could remember the richness in the hue of yami's hooded eyes, as his pupils dilated and the lavender color turned into wine the closer Kaiba drew his face in for a kiss. And Kaiba could feel himself falling as he dove in for that kiss, yearing and yearing, going deeper and deeper, the sensation of endless fallling grounded by the sweetness of Yami's lips.

Shocked out of the memory into the current space of the infinite time space of the dream, Kaiba regained his senses. Yami looked like a satisfied cat from what Kaiba could only guess came from his own revealed reactions to his memory.

"So…?" Yami asked.

"I really can't say," Kaiba lied. Yami would have been able to guess anyway.

"I was thinking four poster bed, with burgundy curtains and silk sheets?" Yami suggested.

"I…really can't say," Kaiba lied again, hoping that the heat rising from his neck up to his cheeks wasn't visible in the dream world.

Yami seemed totally unphased by Kaiba's transparent denials and continued on. "I wonder why we were thrown into negative space instead of meeting each other in the dream."

Kaiba just threw Yami a whatdoIknow look and shrugged.

"Maybe it was too intense of a dream." Yami said, smirking.

"Maybe" Kaiba blandly agreed.

"Let's hope we can continue the dream sometime. In dreamspace or in real life" Yami said, winking.

Kaiba didn't know how to react, so he didn't.

"I will see you later," Yami said, the overly cheerful tone coming from mythical Yami sounded dangerously ominous to Kaiba.

Kaiba woke up just as Yami left the dreamspace and he dully looked up. Four poster bed. Burgundy curtains. And he was undeniably laying in silk sheets. Kaiba groaned.

In five weeks he was going to face Yami in a duel monsters competition. Kaiba would have to get his bearings straight and figure out HOW to deal with all the emotional baggage of that dream and to figure out a way to inevitably wipe that smirk off Yami's face, the inevitable we had dreamsex and you enjoyed it smirk. He was a genius right? He will figure something out. He will show Yami he's not to be trifled with at the competition, or he ruefully added, the next time they meet in dreamspace. Whichever one came first.


	3. Chapter 3: Destiny

_Day 3:_ Destiny  
"We were each other's rock. But did it make us each other's destiny?"

The gentle sway of the falling maple leaves and the warmth that surrounded the lone building did nothing to temper Kaiba's harsh impression of the first time he visited Domino museum. It had been 6 years since then. As Kaiba got older and his memories started to fracture, his sharp memory allowed him to separate history into discrete segments, switching the lens from one time period to the next with alarming accuracy.

He never visited the museum as a child and therefore had no concept of the childlike awe of experiencing history. The first time he visited the museum he was a child acting as an adult in the pretense of making a business deal.

Today he stood before the museum as a visitor, on his own impulse. He didn't know why the urge bubbled up right after Mokuba had suggested the return of the Egyptian exhibition, and Kaiba never was the sort of person to question his own motivations. In his adult lens, the Museum looked smaller and more dilapidated, a pathetic contrast to his own well maintained and architecturally modern office buildings. Kaiba shrugged and nevertheless entered the museum. He had taken off the whole day on a whim and there was nothing else but more work waiting for him if he did not spend time at the museum.

The interior of the museum was just as dilapidated as the exterior. It had the conventional sense of space and solid material foundation of a typical museum. It was designed to display and preserve and it served its function adequately. But everything about it was old and well cared for, and to Kaiba it projected an uneasy sense of decay onto him, instead of one of permanence and antiquity.

Looking at the map and tour information that was handed to him, he decided that there were far too many exhibitions and rooms that he would make a zigzag through everything and look at whatever caught his eye. The last time he had learned anything about Ancient Egypt was under the tutelage of one of gozaburo's tutors. The information was crammed into him by rote memorization, but he was still capable of recalling all of the time periods and the key figures of that era. To a young boy like Kaiba who loved war and glory, the Egyptian civilization held little romance to him, as a culture that lost all its power and crumbled into the backwards country it was now.

The last time he visited, he had passed through full of purpose and ignored all of the displays, having only business in mind. It wasn't surprising at all as to why his younger self felt that way, as he glanced through the various objects in glass cases. All of the historical artifacts were either misshapen, constructed poorly and were either cracked or the paint was fading. Of course they would be that way since they were all crafted in an era before mechanized industrialization, but the knowledge wasn't able to shut off the critical part of his mind that sought perfection.

The more Kaiba looked through the displays, however, the more these objects struck him with a strange charm. That was funny in itself because Kaiba never thought that way about anything.

—-

Ever since the spirit had left so so long ago, taking with him the existence of magic and any possibility of victory and redemption, the world had reverted into the world that Kaiba viciously asserted. It didn't matter that Kaiba was right because there was nobody's face to rub it into anymore. As time passed, and the world never altered from a constant state of predictability, Kaiba would wonder if the spirit had existed at all.

When he told Mokuba about it, Mokuba would tell him, "as long as you have the memory of the experiences you had together in your heart, then he really did exist." Mokuba's words didn't leave him with any sense of comfort, instead leaving Kaiba more concerned about the type of people Mokuba was hanging out with.

Kaiba was able to sense it better now though, now that he was a sober adult who took life as it was instead of a teenager who thought demons could be exorcised with symbolic gestures that involved great scale destruction. He was able to feel the other Yugi as a palpable sensation, and he took it all in because it was the only thing left he could do. It was longing and happiness and helplessness together in a concoction that left his heart both bursting and aching at the same time. He was able to feel it in its most intense form when they dueled all those years ago, and then it intermittently came afterwards whenever he looked at Yugi and realized it was not the right one. The first time he ever made the connection that those disparate feelings were all the same thing and pointed to one person, it was the first time he ever understood the feeling of regret.

He could still deny that he was a High Priest 3000 years ago. But it doesn't matter anymore. The spirit didn't exist and Kaiba never actively thought about him.

—-

If Kaiba didn't believe in magic, it didn't change the way he could feel the energy in the museum. It didn't change how the energy was channeled through the artifacts and grew stronger and converged towards the room that held the centerpiece of the exhibition.

When Kaiba entered the room, there was only one person in it, whose back was towards him and was facing that giant rock that was the intersection of their lives all those years ago. If Kaiba didn't face Ishizu Ishtar in the battle city finals, he would have probably thought all what Ishizu did was stand in this room, as the lone caretaker of that rock. She didn't turn around or acknowledge his existence, even as he stepped beside her and mimicked her rock gazing.

The rock never really stopped being a rock in Kaiba's mind, even though it was apparently his counterpart that carved it 3000 years ago. A lot of people consider it a work of art, an example that demonstrates good taste and artistic prowess of the ancient egyptian nobility. But Kaiba knew he could probably make something better, and expected a lot more from someone who was apparently his spiritual predecessor.

It wasn't a bad carving by any means, just saying.

Nothing about the rock had changed, obviously enough, and Kaiba just stared at it. Stared at the details and the crude etchings of the Pharaoh and of the High Priest. The presence of the rock was heavy and imposing, reaching to a height that almost hit the ceiling. It must have been an incredible undertaking for a man who surely had his hands full running an empire to have single handedly carved this all out.

The first time he saw the rock, it was just a rock. He didn't understand where it came from, had no desire to understand. The text had been totally unreadable. this time, as he traced the text with his eyes, the words and its symbolic and linguistic connotations and how they fit into the history of the priest and pharaoh were fully understandable.

the deceased body lays to rest

the vessel turns to sand, turns to fine dust

all of the riches, all of the blades

fall to enshroud in the hilt of time

to a corpse, the name of king is nothing

—-

time is the battleground of the soul

we shout

the anthem of battle

the anthem of friendship

to the place where distant souls intersect

we will be guided

The high priest wrote this as an eulogy as a gesture of friendship to the former pharaoh.

They would one day be reunited in the place that souls rest.

The idea of reuniting struck Kaiba as oddly romantic. The notion that the high priest and the pharaoh were friends to such an intimate level made him slightly uncomfortable once he realized the depth and affection involved in such a gesture. The other Yugi in Kaiba's recollection was nothing but a rival, and considering him as anything beyond that would lead Kaiba to thoughts he would rather not have.

"You are doing well Kaiba?" Ishizu suddenly voiced, pulling Kaiba back into reality.

"Hn," he responded, not particularly seeking a conversation.

"I see you are as rude as ever," Ishizu said, in a fond sort of way that showed she wasn't pleased with Kaiba but wasn't offended with him that she could make light of it.

"I never acquired the taste of unnecessary pleasantries."

Smiling out of fondness, Ishizu turned towards Kaiba. "Are you not curious about me or marik?"

"Not particularly," Kaiba honestly responded.

"Then why are you here?" She asked, as if she already knew what will happen but needed to say it to make the final push.

And the words were embarrassing to Kaiba because he never stopped being stubborn and the photographic memory in his mind still remembered the passion at which denied everything and the validity of his denials. But there was something Kaiba sought, and he was old enough to understand it this time. He wanted to get closer to it, feel it, understand it until it became something of his own. Even if Kaiba was an atheist and didn't believe in the afterlife, somebody that might have been important - could have been important did believe in it. And there was something in Kaiba in which he felt very strongly recently, was that to deny somebody their beliefs was to deny their right as an intellectual and independent entity, essentially their right to exist. He didn't know why this was important, but there was no hesitations in his belief.

After a long pause, Kaiba turned to Ishizu and looked at her void of his usual disdain.

"Ishizu, Tell me of my destiny."


	4. Chapter 4: Secrets

Day 4: Secrets

"The best secrets are the most twisted"

- Sara Shepard, Twisted

NOT REALLY PRIDESHIPPING, OOC. READ AT RISK.

It was in the afterglow of sex, in the slow lift of hormonal bliss that Kaiba found Yami to be the most irresistible. All of the sharp angles in Yami's face would soften and an uncharacteristic vulnerability emerged, the rarity of the occasion lighting a hidden burning instinct in Kaiba to posses and to protect the moment at all costs.

"Kaiba, must you leave so early every morning?" Yami quietly asked. On the edges of his voice was a quiet desperation, a mournful plea that had the power to crumble all of Kaiba's steely resolve. But the both of them knew that Yami would never beg, and Kaiba would never spurn his responsibilities.

"The company needs me," Kaiba whispered, tracing his thumb down Yami's smooth cheek, unable to look away from Yami's sorrowful eyes. He loved the way the light hit Yami's eyes, how his eyes were so clear that Kaiba could see his reflection in them. Those eyes to Kaiba, captured the full spectrum of life itself, full of depth and layers that undulated and changed like the changing tides.

"I understand," Yami said, and closed his eyes. Yami was still in bed, wrapped in the sheets, still unhinged, still unreeling from the effects of their lovemaking. The way he closed his eyes and tilted his head back was an invitation to Kaiba, who in contrast to Yami's nakedness was already dressed in his immaculate work attire. When Kaiba bent down and kissed Yami for that one final time, the kiss would quickly devolve into frantic devouring, where Kaiba's previous composure was easily demolished by Yami's residual passion. They always parted with great difficulty, having to fight the pull of their natural magnetism towards each other.

Kaiba never understood why he went for that last kiss. The inefficiency of putting on clothes then having to rearrange them struck him as awfully pointless. Maybe it had something to do with the fragility of the unlabeled and nebulous form of their relationship, both of them standing on unstable ground of where they stood and where it would go. It was a dirty secret made even dirtier by the fact that they both hid it from their respective confidantes. And because of that, there was an inherent fear in Kaiba that needed to be always sated, that always kept him reaffirming that what shouldn't have been would always be there. The kiss they just shared maybe would be the last. The next time he kissed Yami maybe he would feel nothing.

They never spoke about it. they both knew it wouldn't last. They never said anything fearing that the solidity of words would destroy the flimsy arrangement they wordlessly agreed to.

Kaiba held no illusions about the concept of impermanence, but the knowledge seemed to do nothing to dull the anxiety of the future. It was impossible to rectify the different, phases, modes and moods of Yami. There was the Yami that bravely stood in danger for the sake of his friends, there was the Yami that wearily sighed when he thought nobody was looking and there was the Yami that opened up like a blooming flower, only behind locked doors in the throes of intimacy and passion. These Yamis all made sense to Kaiba, they followed a path of logic that made sense with all of their shared experiences.

The unease never subsided however, if anything it grew more with each passing season.

There was a time when the only Yami he knew was the one that faced him fearlessly across the Duel Monsters Platform. To Kaiba, that Yami was nothing but a hurdle, an unbreachable wall that never failed to respond to brilliance with equal shining brilliance. There was nothing soft or familiar in his cold determination nor his boastful pride, chastising Kaiba for his faults, rubbing it in with each bitter defeat.

This Yami never changed even after they started being intimate.

Neither did the nature of the duels change. They stayed exhilarating and infuriatingly challenging. It was when the buzz of adrenaline dissipated that Kaiba would feel the heaviness and unyielding stubbornness of that wall, and his stomach would sink just long enough for him to realize that the feeling was able to undo every touch he and Yami shared, every form of implied intimacy and trust they built together. It was all well and good though, because Kaiba learned harsher lessons before and they were deeply ingrained, occupying every part of him right down into bone.

This was how Kaiba knew it would never last.

—

The distance from Kaiba's mansion to the game shop was not too far, but it still required a subway ride then a bus that rode right to the front of the shop. It wouldn't do good to be too late, he already had taken up too much time.

Yugi immediately went to his room after he got home and put the millenium puzzle on around his neck. The puzzle shone with their contact and the warm familiarity of the puzzle filled him with relief.

"Welcome back aibou," a warm and familiar voice said.

"Hi, my other self. How are you?" Yugi asked.

"I am doing well, although I fear I am forgetting the sound of your voice," the spirit said, with a touch of concern.

Yugi laughed awkwardly. "I'm sorry…we've talked about this before right?"

"Yes we did…It's just, I don't like the idea of us being apart for too long. What if-," the spirit started, but stopped due to a selfconsciousness that he had recently developed. Yugi had been taking off the millenium puzzle for the last few months, never accounting for his actions or telling him of his whereabouts. At first it didn't bother the spirit, but he knew that their bond was falling apart, due to lack of exposure and Yugi's unwillingness to reveal his actions.

"Do you think it's a bad thing, my other self?" Yugi said, sounding worried, "Am I being selfish?"

"Not at all Yugi. I understand the need for privacy. You're going through a lot of changes. It is however… a lot more privacy than I expected." the spirit said, looking a bit ruefully to his other self.

"I'm sorry…I promise never to shut you out. I'll tell you when I'm ready." Yugi smiled at the spirit in a way that conveyed his hope and the spirit smiled in return, the hint of concern in his eyebrows never leaving his face.

"I have all my faith in you. But if you can't handle it, please, tell me," the spirit pressed, communicating his displeasure at being shut out.

Yugi nodded a cute nod, hoping that it wouldn't be too long till he could maneuver Kaiba in the place he wanted. He felt a little guilty for was he was doing, but Yugi had weighed the pros and cons of his actions and he had made his choice long long ago.

Nobody would discover his secret.

AN: SORRY MOST TWISTED THING I COULD THINK OF. I wanted to do something dark and bdsm like with the prideshipping but i didn't know how to tie the secret aspect into it. I really like the idea of evil yugi using his cuteness to fool everyone :|


	5. Chapter 5: Trust

Day 5: Trust

"I have to be your equal. Not someone to fall with, but someone to rise to the heights with."

-Risky

"Kaiba, do you trust me," Yami said, a slight tremor in his voice betraying the firmness and authority he wanted to project.

"What does any of this have to do with trust?" Kaiba responded, annoyed with the sudden line of questioning.

"Everything, Kaiba. Everything comes down to trust."

—

The catalyst for the argument was butter. To be more precise, Kaiba came home from a really shitty day of work and the butter was just an outlet for anger. the main database at research and development had lost a whole day's worth of data from a blackout during backup. not only did he have to fire a whole team of people responsible for the error, he had to stay back late to recover whatever was recoverable. Kaiba stepped into the mansion more tired and more irritated than usual hoping that seeing his boyfriend would be able to put him in better spirits. but tonight Yami was nowhere in sight. Calling out to yami, kaiba stepped into the kitchen, and lo and behold, a stick of butter lay naked in its dish exposed to the elements, with the lid carelessly on the counter.

Something in Kaiba snapped. Even despite countless previous warnings about putting the lid back over the butter, Yami seemed to have been totally incapable of remembering that one simple detail. Yami had absolutely no responsibilities in Kaiba's mansion. He was able to come and go, use all of the amenities and eat whatever he wanted. There was a simple caveat that all he had to do was put things back to the way they were. Yami's inconsideration irritated Kaiba to no end because there was a maid on staff who would have put the lid back on if she passed by the kitchen. Who knows the countless number of times Yami left the top off the butter on additionally to the times that he was actually caught doing it.

"YAMI!," kaiba yelled towards the staircase, not knowing if Yami was close enough to hear his voice.

After a rather long and irritating pause, Yami slinked down the stairs, looking completely normal except for a slight frown of concern from hearing kaiba's angry voice.

"How many times did I tell you," Kaiba said in a harsh tone, shaking his arm with a pointed finger at the butter, "to put the fucking top back on."

"Oh," yami said, once he realized the lack of gravity of the situation. "I got a call from Yugi and—," Yami started but suddenly paused, remembering that Kaiba hated when Yami put preference on his other self when Kaiba was in a bad mood. "I would have put it back on if I came back," Yami said instead.

"This is unacceptable Yami. Why is it so hard to do this one simple thing?" Kaiba said displeased.

"It's not a big deal Kaiba. I don't get why you're so mad," yami returned, getting a bit irritated himself.

"Because it's something you should know." Kaiba stated.

"Look, i just—, It makes no sense to leave the butter out of the fridge OK?" And it was true. people who left the butter out of the fridge at room temperature were savages.

"You treat my house like a dump."

"I do what?"

"It doesn't occur to you to put the top on because you don't consider it important," Kaiba said rather cryptically.

The crypticness didn't go past Yami who was quick to pick it up. "This is about something else isn't it. I refuse to believe this is about butter."

And maybe this was true. Maybe it had a lot to do with the hundreds of other things that Yami did that annoyed Kaiba. They were things that Kaiba would try to voice like a good boyfriend and address at Yami's urging, only to be shut down and told that he was being insecure. Never in Kaiba's life had he been called insecure by anyone, and it stung. A lot. To honestly open up to yami and reveal his concerns had instead given yami the ammunition to make all of their relationship problems the fault of Kaiba's personality flaws. It left his pride and dignity bruised and he resented Yami for taking that path, for pretending he was concerned about airing out their issues when in fact he didn't care about Kaiba's feelings unless they were convenient to him.

Of course Kaiba was too smart to reveal this, so he said the only thing available to him. "This is about you forgetting things."

"..Like what?" Yami asked, sensing the broad implication of the statement.

"Like the lid of butter." Kaiba would not reveal anything more.

Yami at this point sighed and looked up at Kaiba, with an expression of caution, looking like he was calculating his next move.

"Kaiba, do you trust me," Yami finally said, a slight tremor in his voice betrayed the firmness and authority he wanted to project.

"What does any of this have to do with trust?" Kaiba responded, annoyed with the sudden line of questioning.

"Everything, Kaiba. Everything comes down to trust. We fight because we do not trust each other."

But Kaiba could sense a verbal trap from Yami as easily as he could detect a trap card. He knew what Yami wanted to hear, and there was no answer that Kaiba could have given that would satisfy Yami.

"This argument has nothing to do with trust." Kaiba replied, not allowing Yami to dictate the argument.

"It does. So answer me," yami said, his patience getting low.

"why the hell should I," Kaiba shot back, with annoyance at being commanded.

"So that means no, doesn't it." Yami crossed his arms and leveled a look at kaiba.

Kaiba sighed. yami was able to turn his argument around on him yet again, and it pissed him off immensely. He instinctively knew there was no way he was going to relent on this point. if he did, Yami would be granted too much power over the relationship. Kaiba responded in the only way that genuinely conveyed his true feelings.

"Yami, I have every faith that you want the best for me." the way in which kaiba said it was dry and full of bitterness that it sounded more like a curse than its intended message.

"But you don't trust me," yami quickly returned.

And Kaiba sighed again. Yami was so fucking demanding at times. He was going to regret saying this, but there was something in Kaiba that wanted to get this out in the open, to make it known that this was a fact that they were both should not turn away from.

"no. You are not a good person."

"What did you say," Yami warned, eyes narrowing.

"You heard me," Kaiba said, not backing down.

"How dare you. How dare you of all people have the audacity to say that to me," Yami said, with such venom that his eyes glowed red and the traces of the eye on his forehead emerged to visibility.

"it's true though," Kaiba responded, looking straight into Yami's eyes, even though the presence of the eye on his forehead was a bit disconcerting.

"How dare you say that when you're far crueler and pettier than me," Yami said, still angry but switching to a tone of authority instead.

"I don't deny it." kaiba haughtily responded. Kaiba wasn't a good person and everyone knew that, but it didn't give Yami the right to think he was a saint himself.

"Kaiba…If you-" Yami started, but Kaiba was tired of this fight and couldn't take it anymore

"God fucking damnit Yami, THINK," kaiba yelled in frustration.

"Don't tell me what to do." Yami gritted, pointing a finger at kaiba for effect.

"Shutup Yami. I'm telling you to think."

"Fuck you Seto Kaiba. I have nothing more to do with you."

And with that, Yami turned around and left Kaiba's mansion, displeasure radiating from all corners out of him.

kaiba for his part watched Yami leave and pounded his fist on the counter, seething. His seething was interrupted however since his line of vision was right on the exposed butter. he returned the lid of the butter dish to its rightful place before going upstairs to bed.

—

it wasn't until 3 days later that Yami returned, showing up at the kaiba corporation right after lunch when Kaiba was the most sated and least alert. During those 3 days Kaiba was in oscillating moods of anger and helplessness and desperate longing. He was still able to function so there were little signs of wear externally but the last fight had taken a big emotional toll him. his secretary beeped him and closed the connection after getting Kaiba's OK to let Yami in. An uncharacteristic nerve-wracking anxiousness hit him. After that fight, there was really no telling what yami's business was coming to his office. There was a big possibility that Yami could break up with him, or to make some sort of unrealistic ultimatum in order to keep the relationship alive. With yami, it could be anything.

Kaiba was shuffling papers uselessly when he heard the sound of knocking at the door. Yami never knocked, and the formality of Yami's consideration didn't make things any easier for kaiba.

"Come in," Kaiba said.

Yami walked in looking like himself, in the sense that he looked proud and dignified as if they did not have a fight 3 days ago. The same could have been said of Kaiba naturally. the way Yami carried himself as he walked in was a bit more cautious and it didn't go unnoticed by Kaiba.

"am i still invited to your house?" yami asked, immediately after he stepped in place in front of kaiba's desk. It was yami's way of offering a peace branch. Yami must have had a personal reason not to bring up the fight, and Kaiba was happy to oblige.

"yes. you are," Kaiba said curtly, not sure where their rocky relationship stood.

"good. i'll see you tonight," Yami said, looking relieved, and pecked a chaste kiss on Kaiba's lips.

Kaiba slumped in his seat in immense relief after yami left through the door. Something had to have happen to Yami in the past few days to elicit that sober response. If Kaiba had to take a guess, it was probably Yugi who had smoothed things out, had decoded the message Kaiba was trying to get across.

Notions as idealistic as trust did not apply to him and Yami. Maybe kaiba could trust yami with his life, or trust yami to pull through to vanquish their common enemies. But there was no way kaiba would trust yami with the innermost corners of his heart and soul. yami who so desperately wanted the relationship to work probably wasn't capable of seeing how fragile and undeveloped it really was.

For somebody like Kaiba who was brought up to suspect and doubt everyone, especially those who were closest to him, the notion of even acknowledging that good people existed in this world was a laughable fairytale. it had taken months of exposure to yami, and of letting his guard down and altering his preassumed positions to even allow the notion that yami genuinely wanted what was best for Kaiba because a lot of what Yami did ran contrary to that fact. Nobody knew how hard Kaiba tried, the progress was so invisible.

These were the words that Kaiba was incapable of saying. there were things he couldn't reveal, weaknesses that both he and yami couldn't show each other. Their relationship operated on a platform of respect and machismo. they would have no need for each other, once one of them fell behind in duel monsters ability or in self-resilience and pride. That was how they supported each other and pushed each other to excellence, roles that could not be filled by any other. To kaiba it didn't matter how his thoughts were transmitted, be it via telepathy or yugi, as long as they somehow got across. And maybe one day, if all the stars magically aligned, they would genuinely understood each other without saying any words. It would be the day when Kaiba could say with absolute surety that Yami had his trust in full.


End file.
